Martin Pease

Iowa is famous for having more pigs than people, and so pork is amazingly affordable year round. Our local grocery store routinely sells thick cut, bone-in pork chops for about $2 each. But pork, like chicken, is easy to overcook and dry out. Using sous vide, you can get consistent, delicious results every time. I recently made the chops you see in the picture, and the entire meal cost about $20 for our family of 7. The technique for cooking pork chops is the same regardless of whether they are bone-in or boneless. If you are cooking anything larger than about 1.5 inches thick, you'll want to increase the cook time to about 2 hours, but below that an hour or so will do. You can trim the chops as lean as you like, but cooking them in the sous vide will turn the fat so soft and delicious that you can leave it on. The final sear gives you a chance to crisp it up if desired. About an hour and a half before dinner time, get your cooking pot full of hot water, and set your sous vid